The breakfast rave is traditionally popular. Photo Maurice Schoo Registration for the Surf Your Stress Week is underway. The annual event, which centres around learning to take a healthy approach to dealing with stress, has been revamped, says coordinator Heleen Franssen.
‘A few things stand out when I look at the registrations for the various activities’, says Franssen. ‘The KSV Franciscus breakfast rave, where students have a free breakfast and can dance before going to their lectures, is a classic. This year, however, we also have many creative activities, such as a painting workshop and a poetry workshop, which are filling up rapidly. As does Anneke Valk’s Your Natural Cycle workshop about your menstrual cycle.’
The collaboration with several student organisations is new this year, says Franssen. ‘This idea has been in our heads for a while. Involving students in organising a week specifically for students is a logical step. We held various brainstorming sessions with students in the course of the year to discover what causes them stress and what might be done to alleviate that stress. There were several associations present during these sessions, so I asked them to organise something. The Surf Your Stress team helps them with organisational issues.’
Olympic success
Sports psychologist Rico Schuijers normally supports national teams in their preparations for the Olympics and other championships. This week, he will provide students with tools to address performance pressure. ‘Top athletes must be able to perform at the right moment. The same applies to students’, Franssen says. ‘Being able to handle such pressure is essential to being able to achieve good grades, build a social life, and graduate. Schuijers reveals similarities between high-level sports and studying and discusses the differences between fear, tension and stress. Ultimately, it is all about understanding what you need in order to perform.’
Despite the fact that the week focuses on stress among students, the programme does not deal exclusively with study-related stress. In addition to, for example, thesis stress, there are also elements in the programme that focus on financial stress and climate stress. StartHub organises a ‘Fuck-Up Night’ to celebrate your failures.
The Surf Your Stress week takes place from Monday 6 to and including Friday 10 November. The programme is available here.